World Bank gives NHIS $27.7m
The World Bank Group is offering the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) $27.7 million to increase its annual active membership and to facilitate claims processing and payments for primary healthcare providers.
The primary healthcare providers comprise community-based health planning and services (CHPS), health centres and maternity homes under the Primary Health Care Improvement Programme for Results.
The programme would be implemented for four years, spanning from 2022 to 2025 and is being financed through a World Bank facility with co-financing grants from the Global Financing Facility, Canada, the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Operation, and the Gavi Alliance.
The funding is allocated based on the Disbursement Linked Result achieved per the Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) of the programme.
The DLis under the programme include increase in the membership of the NHIS, increase in the enrolment of vulnerable populations in the Scheme and improvement in claims processing and payment for the primary healthcare facilities.
This was in a statement issued by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) Technical Working Group led by Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, the Chief Executive and copied to the Ghana News Agency after their meeting with the World Bank Group.
It said under the facility, the NHIA in partnership with the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, and the Health Facility Regulatory Authority were to improve on relevant aspects of accreditation of healthcare providers, monitoring, and financing of primary healthcare services.
The NHIA and the Social Protection Directorate of the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection collaborative effort would boost the enrolment of indigent populations, such as the disabled, orphans, widows, women, and children in the Scheme, the statement said.
“This will be done through linkage with the National Household Registry which is also supported by the World Bank,” it stated.
“The ‘New NHIS’ leadership’s ultimate goal is building a more resilient Health Insurance Scheme that responds to the needs of all by providing access to quality and affordable healthcare services on a sustainable basis,” it said.
The statement said the Executive Management’s strategy towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) was the adoption of ‘pro-poor pathway’ interventions fastened to the legal framework that every Ghanaian should register with the NHIS.
It stated that the NHIA Chief Executive, his deputies, and some directors had completed a national tour of all 16 regions as a way of connecting with staff and the citizenry and discussed how to strengthen the NHIS and the role it played as a vehicle for Ghana to achieve UHC.
“Leadership is determined to open more offices in strategic locations to make the NHIS accessible to all. Some additional offices recently commissioned are the Western North Regional Office, Bono East Regional Office, Ahafo Regional Office, Dormaa East, Jamaan North, Asunafo North, Asutifi North, Obuasi, Asawase, Atwima Kwanwoma, Ejisu, Komenda Edina Eguafo Abirem (KEEA) Mion, Kumbungu, and Nanton,” it said.
The statement added Bono East, Sunyani Municipal, Jaman South, Kintampo Municipal, and Techiman Municipal have received newly branded operational vehicles.
It said the NHIS had grown to become a major instrument for financing healthcare delivery in Ghana and it was the financial mainstay of over 4,600 credentialed healthcare service providers and over 80 per cent of the internally generated funds of most healthcare providers were from the Scheme.
The statement mentioned that the NHIA had received support from development partners including the World Bank Group, World Health Organization (WHO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and the Korea Foundation for International HealthCare (KOFIH), among others.
The support had positioned Ghana’s NHIS as a remarkable social protection model in Africa and is evidenced by the number of foreign delegations who have so far visited the NHIA to understudy the NHIS operations, it stated.
The statement said the World Bank Group’s recent financial support was therefore key and timely in the NHIA quest to achieve UHC by the year 2030.
Source: GNA